well i still believe and have since stinson and blaylock left. its not craigs fault the offense sucks... its the guard play, always has been... simply because we do not have a legitimate threat that handles the ball every time down court... if we had a legitimate threat night in and night out craig would be more free to be craig, and wouldnt see 16 different defenses all focusing on him... same goes with the other front court players... none of them outside of brackins is a constant threat, not one of them. gilstrap can score sometimes, but most the time is just simply awkward and out of control...
only one reason we are not as good as we thought...
- Thread starter Tedcyclone
- Start date
So, if this group has improved, which I believe they have been upgraded, the excuses (for worse numbers this year over last) that Craig isn't getting the ball when/where he should be need to stop.
Craig got the ball in horrible positions last year and still dominated games. It's not happening this year.
And before someone can say it, he faced just as many double teams last season as he is this year.
So what's changed?
IMO, and I believe this is clear when watching the games, Craig's on-court attitude.
Surely, the "you hate Craig" comments will come out, that's fine. It's certainly the simpleton way of debating this issue. However, I do love Craig Brackins. But even he is not perfect. And this season, he's most certainly not perfect.
I think the main thing that has changed is chemistry.
This team hasn't "clicked" yet.
Whether that would lead to, or is because of, Craig's attitude, or confidence or any of the myriad other things that go with chemistry, I can't tell from my perspective. I think you'd have to be inside the team to have that kind of information.
He certainly isn't good either. The fact that he can't make an outside shot and only makes half of his layups is not lost on other teams preparing to play ISU. He may be the best ISU has, but teams have an easy time what he does as a point guard.
He is an average guard. When was the last time ISU had an average PG on an NCAA tourny team?
Maybe he's not the complete problem but he is they key IMO. Think back to ever game we have played in the past two seasons that have been successful. Think of the runs we make. It seem DG is playing well in those. OK last year, DG played well. When we made a small run on DUke this year DG was being aggressive.
IMO, DG has to be aggressive going to the hole. If he is a threat to penetrate every time he brings the ball up that is a huge advantage.
I dont think its craig not getting the ball in position... he is what he always has been... a face up player away from the basket... we keep waiting for the dominate post play...im guessing we are going to be waiting for a long time. DG is good at not turning it over, and getting the ball out of his hands, but not really making easy plays for our team... im talking about a guard that the other team has to commit to once in the lane... that doesnt ever happen. he doesnt pull people away from anyone else. our 2 guards are not dynamic... colvin is the closest thing we have and he is a raw true freshman...
we have up graded, yes, but not a lot of times do first year players, unless they are elite come in and dominate like we are wanting them to...
we have up graded, yes, but not a lot of times do first year players, unless they are elite come in and dominate like we are wanting them to...
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Wow. I truly am baffled by all the hate surrounding DG. He's on pace to have the highest assist-to-turnover ratio by any Cyclone since Jacy Holloway. Higher than Tinsley, Stinson, and Blalock. People complain about him not being able to make shots when his field goal percentage would put him in the top 10 of the conference if he shot more. He's playing great basketball and is one of the best point guards in the conference.
Seems to me when we were playing really well early on, the guards were moving the ball, penetrating and dishing. There appears to be alot more shooting now and about a 1/10 the motion/ball movement.
Our offense is non-existant. We bring the ball up. Brackins makes a faint attempt to post a guy - usually 8 feet away from the bucket and moving out, the guards look at him, then maybe move right or left and try to break a guy down and take a 15 foot jumper with 20+ sec on the shot clock. Or Craig comes out high and gets the ball from the guard.
Once we get in the half court, does anyone move more that 5 feet from where they setup? I'm sure they do - but in all honesty it doesn't seem like it. There's no movement in the offensive sets. What there is, is always away from the hoop. Craig and Hamilton should rarely come out high, but they do all the time.
How do we have an offensive set where Brackin's doesn't touch the ball? Yet it happens all the time. He commands a double team when he has it - so feed him. Early on, he was one of the better passers on the team. He gets doubled - somebody is open and he can hit them. He doesn't - he should be taking his man straight to the hole and not this 12 foot fade-away crap. While he has the ball, it'd be nice if the guards did something other than watch him (see again... movement)
Previous shooters (Hoiberg, Willoughby, Sullivan, even both Halluskas) ran their arses off across that baseline trying to shake the defender. As stated earlier and often - what movement do we have out of Lucca, Christpherson, even Gilstrap?
GMac needs to do something about it, but at the same time I have a hard time believing he draws it up this way. It seems like he's trying to let them be free and have a bit of run and gun. But when it doesn't happen and we have to get into a set, we just seem lost. Across the board.
Our offense is non-existant. We bring the ball up. Brackins makes a faint attempt to post a guy - usually 8 feet away from the bucket and moving out, the guards look at him, then maybe move right or left and try to break a guy down and take a 15 foot jumper with 20+ sec on the shot clock. Or Craig comes out high and gets the ball from the guard.
Once we get in the half court, does anyone move more that 5 feet from where they setup? I'm sure they do - but in all honesty it doesn't seem like it. There's no movement in the offensive sets. What there is, is always away from the hoop. Craig and Hamilton should rarely come out high, but they do all the time.
How do we have an offensive set where Brackin's doesn't touch the ball? Yet it happens all the time. He commands a double team when he has it - so feed him. Early on, he was one of the better passers on the team. He gets doubled - somebody is open and he can hit them. He doesn't - he should be taking his man straight to the hole and not this 12 foot fade-away crap. While he has the ball, it'd be nice if the guards did something other than watch him (see again... movement)
Previous shooters (Hoiberg, Willoughby, Sullivan, even both Halluskas) ran their arses off across that baseline trying to shake the defender. As stated earlier and often - what movement do we have out of Lucca, Christpherson, even Gilstrap?
GMac needs to do something about it, but at the same time I have a hard time believing he draws it up this way. It seems like he's trying to let them be free and have a bit of run and gun. But when it doesn't happen and we have to get into a set, we just seem lost. Across the board.
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Also, Colvin has one of the worst assist-to-turnover ratios on the team. He's not going to make this team better right now if he starts in place of DG.
Maybe for the first time ever.... we agree on something. Craig has not been the same type of player this year... The Duke game is a great example. He was just throwing shots up like crazy... not letting the game come to him... forcing everything and then whining when it didn't go right.
In my opinion... DG has improved greatly... Cristopherson is a step up. Gilstrap is better then anyone we had last year on the team. Hamilton has improved.... so to your point... what gives?
i dont hate dg at all... i just think we are an average team because we dont have as many great players as we think we do... its either that, or the coaching just really does suck... i dont know, but one of those two things has to be true.
if garret could consistantly score 10-15 pts with a 5 to 1 ratio and the ability to sometimes, once every now and again put in 20 pts.... we would be that dominate team... as it is, we are not.
or okay if scott chirstopherson, or lucca could do the above then we would also be dominate... as it is, none of them can or has under gmac...
ou last night looked bad, and has all year... however there center, tiny, constantly got the ball under the basket and had shot after shot after shot at the rim... why and how? one he is a true post, and two people got him the ball... we dont have anyone to keep the double off anyone, nor do we have a post scoring threat, or a constant guard scoring threat... we have 1 player maybe a game that can get hot at shooting jumpers and score 20 pts... we dont have someone who can do that every night because all we have are jump shooters that need to get lucky and hot on a certain night... no one that can get to the basket when nothing is falling... say what you will, but id say 4 straight seasons of no post season what so ever speaks for itself.
if garret could consistantly score 10-15 pts with a 5 to 1 ratio and the ability to sometimes, once every now and again put in 20 pts.... we would be that dominate team... as it is, we are not.
or okay if scott chirstopherson, or lucca could do the above then we would also be dominate... as it is, none of them can or has under gmac...
ou last night looked bad, and has all year... however there center, tiny, constantly got the ball under the basket and had shot after shot after shot at the rim... why and how? one he is a true post, and two people got him the ball... we dont have anyone to keep the double off anyone, nor do we have a post scoring threat, or a constant guard scoring threat... we have 1 player maybe a game that can get hot at shooting jumpers and score 20 pts... we dont have someone who can do that every night because all we have are jump shooters that need to get lucky and hot on a certain night... no one that can get to the basket when nothing is falling... say what you will, but id say 4 straight seasons of no post season what so ever speaks for itself.
Last time I checked, DG was the starting point guard last year when CB had great numbers. And the 2 guard was the much maligned Petey. And Ham was a freshman. And we didn't have a great athlete at the 4 spot. I don't see how anyone can say it is DG's fault. Something is wrong with the chemistry, and CB is pressing. We need to play better D, create some easy baskets. We also need to put more pressure on the defense by utilizing more movement, screens, and ball fakes.
Other teams do that to us all the time. A guy catches it on the wing, and pump fakes. We run out and fly by, allowing that guy to basically have a 5 on 4 situation. This messes up the entire defense, then with all the rotating we have to do we are out of position to rebound. I think guys are trying to make plays, maybe trying to hard. Just my 2 cents.
Other teams do that to us all the time. A guy catches it on the wing, and pump fakes. We run out and fly by, allowing that guy to basically have a 5 on 4 situation. This messes up the entire defense, then with all the rotating we have to do we are out of position to rebound. I think guys are trying to make plays, maybe trying to hard. Just my 2 cents.
Your post starts with "only one reason we are not as good as we thought" and proceeds to only note DG.
This is false. The problems with this team are many...and IMO, DG is not the biggest one.
This is false. The problems with this team are many...and IMO, DG is not the biggest one.
and i will stick with that one thing theme... dynamic guard play... not just dg, i retract... overall dynamic guard play.
last year we did have the same guards... but how are we worse then last year? cause brackins is avg one or two less baskets a game? that doesnt make any sense.. what did we do last year? nothing... what have we done this year? nothing... same thing.
last year we did have the same guards... but how are we worse then last year? cause brackins is avg one or two less baskets a game? that doesnt make any sense.. what did we do last year? nothing... what have we done this year? nothing... same thing.
